The Wests Tigers were dealt a narrow 21-20 defeat by the Brisbane Broncos tonight at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.
It was one-way traffic in the opening exchanges, with the Tigers dominating the defending premiers through the middle of the park.
Taylan May opened the scoring in his first game back from injury, before three first half tries from the visitors gave Brisbane an 18-14 lead at the break.
The Tigers brought plenty of energy in defence in the second half, and took back the box seat through a try to captain Api Koroisau. However, the Broncos closed out the match with a field goal from Adam Reynolds, winning 21-20.
Key stats:
Jahream Bula: The Fijian international crossed in the first half to extend his try-scoring streak to four games.
Terrell May: The front-rower recorded his second straight match with over 200 run metres, clocking a career-high 236. He also equalled Sunia Turuva for most line breaks of anyone on the field with two.
Api Koroisau: The veteran hooker put in a tough 80-minute stint in the middle, punching through 47 tackles and crossing for a timely try.
On the attack: The Tigers used their 54% share of possession to run for over 1800 metres, split the Broncos defensive line on six occasions, bust out of 31 attempted tackles, and offload the ball 17 times.
The moments:
9th minute: Adam Doueihi launches a fifth-tackle bomb towards Jesse Arthars, and an airborne Samuela Fainu snatches it out of the air and offloads to Taylan May to cross untouched in his first game back from injury. Doueihi adds the extras for a 6-0 lead.
18th minute: Gehamat Shibasaki is penalised for catching a goal line dropout that hadn’t travelled 10 metres. Doueihi slots the penalty goal to push the advantage to eight.
22nd minute: The Broncos hit back through a second-phase short-side play which saw Ezra Mam send Josiah Karapani over in the corner with a cut-out ball. Adam Reynolds converts from the sideline to reduce the Tigers lead to 8-6.
31st minute: On the attack once again, Sione Fainu drags defenders across the turf before offloading to Jahream Bula, who sent Doueihi through a gap with a stunning flick pass. Doueihi put his speed on show before drawing in Arthars and finding Bula in support to secure the Tigers’ second try of the evening. Doueihi fired the conversion between the uprights for a 14-6 lead.
31st minute: Payne Haas is forced from the field with an apparent ankle injury and ruled out for the remainder of the match.
36th minute: Pressing forward after a line break, Reynolds floats a cross-field kick into the path of Deine Mariner who raced away with Brisbane’s second try. Reynolds converts the try to close the deficit, Tigers lead 14-12.
39th minute: In the final moments of the first half, Brisbane take the lead as Reynolds throws an inside ball to Ben Talty, who crashes over. Reynolds converts from in front to put his side ahead 18-14.
53rd minute: Bringing plenty of intensity out of the sheds, the Tigers reclaim the lead as Samuela Fainu charges towards the middle and produces a magical offload to Api Koroisau, who crashes over beside the uprights. Doueihi nails the conversion to give his side a 20-18 lead.
66th minute: Koroisau is penalised for a play at an opposition arm out of dummy half being ruled as a strip of the ball. Brisbane takes the two to lock it up at 20-apiece.
70th minute: Adam Reynolds snaps an early field goal to put Brisbane ahead 21-20, and the score remained unchanged for the final 10 minutes.
What they said:
NRL Head Coach, Benji Marshall
“Obviously disappointed to lose. We’ve been on the other end of close scorelines like that, but no excuses.”
On the direction of the playing group:
“We’ve got belief in what we’re doing. There were times tonight where we looked really good with our defence. I thought we were dominating field position, which is the way we want to play.
“There were moments tonight we probably wish we could have back, too.”
